Steelbacks to stay on the attack as they target seventh Blast win against Essex

Northants host Essex in a T20 game for the first time, with the most recent meeting being the first between the sides in the Blast since the semi-final at Edgbaston in 2013.

The only other T20 game between the counties was a quarter-final played at Chelmsford in 2008, and Friday’s Wantage Road showdown is one Lehmann and his players are really looking forward to.

Northants go into the game off the back of a six-wicket County Championship defeat at Division Two leaders Durham, and although the result was a setback, Lehmann was happy with how his team approached a game that went down to the final 16 balls of the four-day contest.

And he wants the Steelbacks to make sure they are on the front foot on Friday night when they aim to make it seven wins out of seven in this season's competition, and stay top of the Central & West Group.

"I'd like to turn six wins into seven, and that's the brand of cricket we want to play," the head coach told BBC Northampton. "As long as we're competing every game, we're okay.

"We'll be on the right side of things more often than not, unlike the game at Durham.

"We've just got to keep playing the way we've been playing, whether it's four day cricket or one day cricket.

"We turn up, represent our county as well as we can possibly can and entertain the fans where we possibly can and then get the result we need."

The Steelbacks are boosted on Friday night by the return to action of wicket-keeper Lewis McManus, who has been out of action since June 6 with a broken toe.

McManus played and hit 69 from just 38 balls as Northants IIs lost a T20 match at Warwickshire Bears IIs on Wednesday.

The Essex match could come too soon for Louis Kimber though, who is still sidelined with a hamstring problem, but he is named in the squad.

Luke Procter is also unavailable after breaking his finger in the Championship loss at Durham, and injury that is likely to leave him sidelined for at least a fortnight.

It’s the second season running that the Steelbacks have won their opening six Blast fixtures, but last year they then lost five on the spin, and that is something Lehmann does not want to see repeated.

"We have to make sure we don’t do what we did last year, and the guys are focused on what they need to do,” said the head coach.

"We have to play our brand of cricket and play as well as we can, and if we do that then we get the result going the right way, although we know Essex are a quality side.

"We haven’t played them in this format for 13 years, so they are sort of the unknown, but they haven’t seen us play either.

"It is going to a great game, high-scoring, it will be a good pitch in great conditions so I’m looking forward to a good performance.”

Essex, who were hammered by an innings and 52 runs by Nottinghamshire at the weekend, are second in the South Group having won four out of six.

They are boosted by the return of England Test T20I batter Jordan Cox, and are captained by South African Simon Harmer.

They are without England bowler Sam Cook, who is still out with a broken wrist.

Northants Steelbacks squad v Essex: David Willey (c), George Bartlett, Justin Broad, Calvin Harrison, Louis Kimber, Chris Lynn, Lewis McManus, Nathan McSweeney, Gus Miller, James Sales, Ben Sanderson, George Scrimshaw, Ricardo Vasconcelos, Raphy Weatherall, Saif Zaib

Essex squad v Steelbacks: Simon Harmer ©, Zum Akhter, Charlie Allison, Luc Benkenstein, Charlie Bennett, Jordan Cox, Matt Critchley, Robin Das, Simon Fernandes, Mackenzie Jones, Mitchell Killeen, Michael Pepper, Shane Snater, Paul Walter